Welcome to the AC Tropical Fish aquarium forum. Our aquarium forum is the place to discuss any aquarium related issue in a friendly environment. Our aquarium forum welcomes aquarists of all levels from beginners to experts. Please ask a question in the how to section of our forum or read the FAQ section if you have any questions. register to and become a part of our friendly aquarium forum community today.

Lost one of my new corys any reason for concern?

0

3 weeks to the day my LFS got my sterba corys shipped in special for me I lost the tadpole looking one. I had tried to distinguish between the 5 purple younger ones and the 2 larger yellow ones I had gotten and this cory was shaped like a tadpole which i now think was a deformity of sorts. He was active until a few days ago and he just got paler and paler and stopped moving and today he was dead; all my other corys are great eaters and active so I think it was a genetic problem.

My tetras drop eggs regularly and my water is fine I do 50% changes twice a week and that's the only time my ph changes from 6 to 6.4 since my tap is 7; my nitrates are basically unreadable as well. I'm thinking I'm fine and the poor little guy just got a bad hand delt to him when he was born he really had a strange body shape.

Every time I test them it shows none at all; I've had trouble with the api nitrate test before but got it worked out. I just think that It's closer to 0 than 5 on the chart so I mark it as 0 usually.

I have a pretty large amount of plants since my watersprite , floating fern, and duckweed all over the top; along with a bunch of root plants on the bottom. I also have golden pothos with leaves above the water in the tank which is said to be a big nitrate eater.

I also don't overfeed my fish and they are all still rather small fish the corys only have 2 that are over an inch and half.

I had more nitrates when I first had my tetras in there but since all the extra plants and the fact I do 2 50% water changes a week I don't see nitrates really like I said maybe 2ppm at most. I use a stopwatch and shake the hell out of the vials when I do the test I can repeat it 2 or 3 times and I get the same results.

If you have lots of fast growing plants then it certainly is possible to have 0 nitrate readings. My 65 has lots of frogbit and nitrates never rise enough to be detected. How big was the deceased Cory? Young cories do look like tadpoles until they fatten up so maybe it was a particularly young or late maturing fish.

I did my usual water change and tested my nitrates 3 times (before of course) and got 1 reading that might have been 2ppm out of all 3 tests the rest were closer to 0. The cory was one of the purple young ones around an inch; perhaps he just never adjusted to tank life.

I picked them up at my LFS right from the bag on shipping day they pull any fish I order. I watch my fish daily and he always stood out to me mainly for the shape and also later because of behavior; sadly I knew he was going to die at the end and there was nothing I could really do. I just want to be sure it wasn't something that will repeat itself; these are the first cory catfish I ever owned so I thought I'd check with more informed people such as yourselves. Personally I think it was just bad luck getting him instead of a healthy fish.

The other corys are all amazing fish they swim all over the tank and even play it seems; I didn't expect them to be so active. They have become the centerpiece of my tank so much I think I may not get a GBR and get 6 more corys instead I just haven't decided on a species yet.